Zig
by magewriter
Summary: A story about the emo girl in Rescue. A little yuri. Really emo. People liked the idea...
1. Runaway

Zig

By Magewriter

Chapter 1: Runaway

Disclaimer: I don't own Psychonauts.

Well, here's the story I promised about Zig. You'll find out stuff about her later…

It was night, but if you happened to look up, you wouldn't be able to see the stars because of the streetlights. There was a small girl walking toward a fire station. She was thin, with thin shoulders, and she was white-blonde. She wore a black dress and black shoes. Her eyes were closed, but her head swiveled back and forth, as if she were looking for someone – or at someone.

She walked up to the fire station and kicked the door a couple of times. A fireman came to the door. She started looking down at the exact angle he was.

"Do you need any help?"

"Yes. Do you know I can get a duffel bag for cheap?"

"Um... yeah. Why?"

"Thank you. That's all I needed." She smiled a little, and odd look for someone who wore black eyeshadow at ten years old.

She walked back down the sidewalk, head swiveling again. The fireman was extremely confused.

When the little girl got back home, she disappeared and reappeared in her bedroom. A little sculpture floated towards her. She undid the plug at the bottom and took out all of her money. She had a lot, for a ten-year-old.

If you didn't think your eyes were playing tricks on you that night, you might have seen a little girl flying over houses to a store. She bought some food usually associated with camping: jerky, dried fruit, instant oatmeal… baisically, things that kept.

Then she went to a camping supplies store, where she purchased a duffel bag. She went back to her house, packed the food, a flashlight, her money, and some clothes into the bag. Then she left the house.

Hopefully forever.

Her destination was Whispering Rock. Usually, it was a summer camp, but during the rest of the year, psychic kids whose parents were afraid of psychics could stay there.

She also wanted to meet the famous psychonaut Sasha Nein.

So you've learned about Zig's values. And that she doesn't care too much about Milla. It makes sense, though. Milla's really… well, colorful. Zig isn't into that. When she was talking to the fireman, she read his mind.

Sorry this chapter's so short. Next chapter, she goes to Whispering Rock. I'm guessing that that's the chapter when you learn why she ran away. Trust me, I don't know the plot any better than you do. Just a couple things about Zig that you definitely don't.


	2. Speaking Sandstone

Chapter 2: Speaking Sandstone

I switched around the words "whispering rock" and got "speaking sandstone." It's fun.

She was finally at Whispering Rock. She went to the main cabin. She saw a colorful person behind her, and saw that it was Milla Vodello, the camp's hippie counselor. "Hi."

"Hello, darling. I've never seen you before. Are you new here?"

"Yeah. I ran away a couple days ago, and I came here."

"Oh. Most people just have parents who drop them off here."

"I wish my mom had."

"Well, uh, I'll have to call your school, so that you can catch up on your work. Do you, uh, do you want to talk about it, darling?"

"No."

"Oh. Okay. Let's eat, darling." They had dinner. Zig asked Milla if it was likely that she would ever talk to Sasha Nein. Milla said it was doubtful, but she'd bring up the subject. Then Milla asked Zig for the name of her school and the city it was in. Then Zig got settled in a cabin. She was tired.

She had just turned on her side and pulled the covers up over her shoulder when she heard another little girl ask, "Why are you here?"

She turned over. Wasn't she allowed to get some sleep? "I ran away. Why are you here?"

"My dad says that, if I'm exposed to the psitanium for long enough, my mental capacity for some of my different skills might go up. Why'd you run away?"

"I was mad at my mom. She doesn't like psychics, and she's homophobic, and she didn't like that I was turning into a Buddhist, and I'm blind. She just couldn't take it. I kept hoping she'd get over it. Then she didn't, so I got mad at her and ran away. I've been planning this for months."

"Oh. What's your name?"

"Zig. What's yours?"

"Lili Zanotto. Yeah, I know, my dad's the head of the Psychonauts. Big deal. I, at least, am a real person. You want me to show you around tomorrow?"

"It could kill time."

Yeah, she's emo. And she's friends with Lili. I didn't put it down, but she took off her eye shadow at night.


	3. Mr No

Chapter 3: Mr. No

Think about the way I'm changing around words. "No" might just be a word that's been translated from another language.

She was having breakfast in the Main Lodge, and she was going to get a Dowsing Rod (she had enough arrowheads now) so she could get a little colorizer thingy for her levitation ball and see if she couldn't turn the thing black.

Looking through the eyes of the invisible girl sitting across from her (there are no secrets in Zig's world, except for hers) she saw Sasha Nein coming up behind her.

"Hi."

The little invisible girl turned visible. "What?"

"I was talking to Sasha. Weirdo."

"You should talk!" And she turned invisible again.

"Oh. You saw me."

"Yeah, I was looking through her eyes. What, would you prefer that I switched to you?"

"Uh, no. Milla said you wanted to talk to me. Usually I don't do this for the kids, but – you actually had to run away?"

"Yep. All the way from Pennsylvania. Over the mountains, to this little crater here. It was fun crossing the state lines. It was so easy, too! I just teleported over."

"You do know that's illegal, too, right?"

"Isn't running away illegal?"

"I'm not sure."

"Exactly."

He sort of twitched. "Wait, you're a teleporter?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's the rarest Psychic talent. To see it in one so young…"

"Listen. I'm good at my skills. When there's only one thing in your life that you can really depend on, you tend to work with it. The whole "psychic" thing conflicted with my mom, among other things, and she got mad at me a lot, and I ran away."

"Well, you're very lucky, little girl, because we have a very good teleporter on… well, on campus. He isn't a teacher, though."

"I just came here to hang. Maybe write some poems. I don't care about adjusting all my psychic skills. Well, I'm going to colorize my levitation ball, but black is way cooler than yellow, you have to admit."

"You'll be extremely bored without anything to do."

"I'm usually extremely bored." Except when her mom was mad at her. But that wouldn't happen any more, hopefully…

Behind her, she felt a bright, colorful presence. And she was having such a good day… Well, Milla had set her up with Sasha. She was okay.

"Sasha, darling! I didn't expect to see you here!" She to Sasha's mind with her clairvoyance. He saw Milla as… ew. Hearts were so little-kid stuff.

He turned to her. "Get out of my mind. I know ways to force you out."

She was more than happy to get out. She went back to the invisible girl. So Sasha liked Milla. Like, like-liked her. And from the way Milla was talking to him, she liked him, too.

So, why weren't they together? With Milla, it was obvious. Well, it was to Zig, anyway. If Milla used Clairvoyance on Sasha for half a second, she'd see… Or maybe she knew. Maybe she was waiting for Sasha… No. She was nice, but she didn't seem to think that way.

Then Zig had a thought that kind of unsettled her: she was thinking about other people and putting them in relationships with each other. Ew.

Finally, Milla had settled at another table.

"So, would you like to come to my lab for some advanced training?"

She hadn't thought Sasha was still paying attention to her.

"I already know how to shoot."

"No, I mean I have a new piece of psychic equipment, and –"

"And you want me to be your little test animal. No, sorry. I don't want to know what my mind looks like. I'm not that into demon-fighting."

"You wanted me to talk to you!"

"You want me to treat you like I treat everyone else? Okay." She turned back to her breakfast, completely ignoring him.

But he had to have the last word, which just happened to be "Fine." Sasha Nein wasn't as cool as she'd thought. Oh, well. He still had good comics. And he wasn't all colorful.

Later, she went to the kids' cabins area and asked some boy with really big hair if he knew where Lili was.

"And what if I do?"

"Then you should tell me."

"Why?"

"Because I'll whoop your butt if you don't."

"Oh, little-miss-goth-girl is challenging _me_! What do you make of that, Benny?"

The big-haired guy had some weird speech problem. His friend Benny had really big ears.

"You want a psychic duel? Over me asking for Lili? Sure!"

"Tonight, in the place with the burnt-out fire, where the coach gives his speech every year!"

"Um, hello? If one of us casts pyrokinesis there, it'll be the end of the whole camp. How about at the old abandoned asylum across the lake?"

"Th-the asylum! That's crazy! We aren't allowed to go there!"

"We aren't allowed to have a psychic duel, either. I'm pretty sure that place in the front is empty."

"No way! I'm not going there!" Just as she'd though. He was a complete sissy.

"Then tell me who Lili is."

"She's that girl over there next to the tree."

"The one with the pigtails?"

"Yeah, who else?"

"Whatever. 'Bye loser!"

She walked over to Lili."

"Hi, Lili."

"Uh, hi. Who are you?"

"Zig."

"Oh! You look really different with the eye shadow."

"I've heard. Do you know why Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello aren't together yet?"

"Uh, because it's Sasha? Hello, this is Sasha Nein we're talking about!"

"Oh. Well, I don't know them very well…"

"Okay, Sasha in love is the weirdest thing I've ever heard."

"Why?"

"Because… Well, it's just the sort of thing that doesn't happen. The day the world crashes into the sun, I'll believe you."

"But you'd be dead."

"Exactly. It's completely impossible to confirm."

"No, but you wouldn't believe me because you wouldn't care because you'd be gone."

"You're sucking all the fun out of this."

"I know."

There was a moment of silence between them, then Lili made the obvious realization. "Wait, Sasha likes Milla, right?"

"Yeah, duh. Why else would I ask?"

"Well, there's also that they're the only two adults here. Besides Cruller, of course, but he's ancient."

"Ford Cruller?"

"Yeah. That's the one thing my dad doesn't like about this place. See, in all the official files, it says Cruller's a loon. But he also likes to help the kids with stuff. You can go talk to him if you ask one of the mine carts to take you to his sanctuary. You have to say "my" sanctuary, though, because it thinks you're Cruller."

"You talk to mine carts for fun? What is this, a hippie LSD camp?"

"You'll see. If you jump down one of those tree stumps, you can ride them."

"This _has_ to be a camp joke. I'm not that dumb, Lili."

"Fine. I need to cash in my new mental cobwebs anyway."

Then Lili ran over to the log near the bridge and jumped in. It was the dumbest thing Zig had ever seen. The weird part was that Lili disappeared down through the log.

Eventually, Zig switched her clairvoyance to the lamp over the log and looked in. It was actually hollow, and there was a modified mine cart in it. So it wasn't one of those things people say to newcomers. She jumped down.

"Hello. This is the Whispering Rock Rapid Transit System. Where would you like to go, Agent Cruller?"

"My sanctuary. Where'd you think?"

"Are the kids giving you a hard time, Agent Cruller?"

"No. I'm just, uh, kinda down today."

"Okay, Agent Cruller."

The computer was almost flirting. Cruller was even weirder than most old guys. But then, all psychics were weird. It was just something they did.

After a minute or two, she was in a huge cave that kind of made her ears ring a little. She was on a big walkway that went across to a big circle. There was a rock floor several feet below her. That sucked.

She saw Agent Cruller, wearing the dark, striped uniform of a psychonaut. He introduced himself and gave her a piece of bacon. Just then, Lili came up with her rank newly established and Cruller said, "Just a minute, Zig, I have to talk to Lili." His mind went into her head. They said he had been the best of all the teleporters, before he'd gone insane. But if he was insane… maybe that explained the bacon. It sure didn't explain much else.

After a couple of minutes, they came back out. Lili said, "Okay. Glad that's over. Come on, Zig. You have to learn about some stuff."

And she went over the ledge, floating down. Zig just looked down and teleported.

"Cool. You're a teleporter, too. Okay. So, this is the Mental Cobweb Loom. It takes the threads from mental cobwebs and weaves them into psi cards. Over here" she walked to a slightly different device, "Is the machine that makes psi challenge markers. If you have nine psi cards and a psi core from the main lodge, you can make a psi challenge marker. Oh, yeah, and for the cobwebs, you only get one psi card per. They really add up, though. Once I had, like, all these cobwebs, and I went from, like, nine psi cards to 38. It was cool! Then I didn't have enough psi cores. It was actually kinda funny."

"Whatever." She teleported back up to the top of the ledge, walked back to tree stump, went down to the mine cart, and went back to the cabin area. Then she walked back to her cabin, took her journal out from her duffel, and wrote in a new poem.

Yeah, I know Zig was a buttmunch to Sasha, but she's just emo to everyone. How many words into the next chapter do you wanna bet before the rumor really gets going at camp about Sasha and Milla? Yeah, and Zig's gonna be working on schoolwork in the next chapter. That also makes good filler. Unless you're Raz, you can't run, jump, and psi float all day long to get the collectibles. Plus, Zig doesn't seem like the sort of person who's into leveling up. She's probably level 100 anyway. She has to be at least level whatever-it-is-to-get-a-dowsing-rod.


	4. Fighting Demons

Chapter 4: Demons

So Zig is gonna try to turn her ball black. I think it would be depressing, but then, her life already is (or maybe just was, but I think she likes black and isn't gonna give that up for awhile) so… Well, here's the story.

She was talking to Lili, looking from Lili's perspective.

Actually, she was just listening to Lili. Sometimes she'd say something, but Lili was the one actually talking.

"So then I pulled out and took back my psychoportal, which of course I could actually do at that point because he was so terrified…"

"Wait – you have your own psychoportal?"

"Yeah. It's pretty. It has a daisy on it."

"So you could, like, go into my mind and do whatever you wanted?"

"No. Your protections are too strong."

"Wow. I didn't know I was so powerful."

"Teleporters are usually pretty powerful. And people who can see the future. But I can't do that. Can you?"

"No. Otherwise I might have run away sooner. But, if you went into my mind, you'd be able to fight my demons?"

"Yeah, I guess. I actually offer that as a service. People pay me for it. I also clean out cobwebs, collect figments, sort baggage, all that stuff… for a price, of course."

"What would it cost me?"

"To go into your mind and get all the collectibles? Nothing. You're a friend."

"I don't want you to take that stuff. That's mine, and I want to see what it is. I want you to help me fight my demons. Could we ask Sasha Nein if that's possible?"

"I know it is. It's hard, though. I forget what goes first: me going to your mind, or you going to your mind."

"Well, let's ask him. It can't hurt to ask."

They went to Sasha's secret underground lab to ask him. He was, of course, not expecting them to come in just as he was pouring a psitanium solution into another mixture of chemicals, (they could possibly explode, so he was ready to shield it) so the kids watched him from the stairs a couple landings above him.

They watched as the mixture bubbled through the shield.

"Erfolg! Ich hab es getan!"

He sounded excited. They went down to the bottom step (the chemicals had spread that far across the floor) and watched as Sasha wrote down a bunch of stuff as quickly as he could.

Finally, as he was cleaning up the mess (by hand) he saw the two girls.

"What are you two doing here! This is a highly dangerous area. Didn't you see the signs?"

"Let's just say for now that I can't read German."

"But you took that class –"

"_Let's just say for now that I don't know any German at all, Sasha!"_

"Okay, okay. Will you help me clean this up?"

"No. It looks icky."

Then Zig piped in with, "I want to! It looks slimy!"

"Thank you. So, why are you two here?"

"We want to fight Zig's demons together. She knows how, but… well, she hasn't had the best life, and she's afraid to go in her mind. We want to use the Brain Tumbler so that she and I can be in her mind at the same time, because she has the hatred and she really wants to, and I'm experienced. You have no idea how much I can charge to get rid of demons and collectibles in people's minds."

"What do they teach children these days?"

"Fortunately, not third or forth year German!"

"Ugh. I guess… but it's a very complex operation. You might not be able to do it."

"Listen. I make money to fight demons and censors and stuff. I know how to do this. It'll be easy. The only hard part will be if her mind has a lot of clairvoyance."

"Uh, why? What's my mind got to do with your abilities?"

"Well, some people have problems with shielding or invisibility or that sort of thing, and I have this thing where I can't maintain clairvoyance for too long."

"Oh. That might actually be a realistic fear."

"Exactly."

"If it is like that, I'll try to get you a flashlight or something."

"Actually, maybe if I used my levi-ball… I could make it white… It's pretty bright."

"Not in that sort of place, it wouldn't be."

Zig and Sasha were finally done cleaning up the chemical mess.

"Okay. So, you both want to be in Zig's mind?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Zig, step up to the Brain Tumbler. Lili, you'll need to borrow my psychoportal to –"

"No, I actually have one of my own now."

"Oh. They give them to ten-year-olds now? What is the world coming to?"

"Uh… Are you sure you had enough coffee this morning, Sasha? You're acting weird."

"Lili…"

"Okay, okay! Let's get going!"

… And that's when the world exploded.

No more story.

Actually, yeah, you do get to read more of the story, I just wanted to say it. Hilarious, huh?

So, let's just go on as though nothing happened.

Zig stepped up to the Brain Tumbler and closed her eyes. Sasha turned it on, and a mental projection of her appeared in her collective unconscious.

Meanwhile, Lili had thrown her psychoportal onto Zig's forehead, and a couple seconds later, she projected into Zig's Collective Unconscious.

"Okay, I'd never thought my mind looked like this."

"It doesn't. This is your Collective Unconscious. All those doors are your potential for going into peoples' minds. If you need some extra space when you have more experience, you can close the doors, but then you can't go back. I think that door's yours, that black one over there. I think it's open a crack…"

They jogged over to the only black door in Zig's Collective Unconscious. It _was_ a little bit open. They opened it all the way and walked through into…

…Complete and utter darkness. Zig focused her clairvoyance on the nearest object, a little doll she'd had when she was younger.

She heard Lili's voice and turned to her.

"Zig? I can't see. Where are we? I don't know if I should be telling you now, but I'm a little bit afraid of the dark. Zig?"

Zig was, of course, so used to using and switching her clairvoyance that she hadn't even noticed that she was using it.

"Just use clairvoyance on the doll. It's just like this one I had when I was five. Isn't this… Uh-oh."

"What uh-oh? Zig, I can't use clairvoyance for long! Where the heck am I?"

"You're right in the way of one of my personal demons. What do I do now!"

The demon in question was a blown-out-of-proportion image of her father, who she only saw as bad because he'd divorced her mother and left Zig to deal with the woman on her own.

"Shoot it, or set it on fire, or kill it however you can!"

"But I don't know how!"

"THEN TRY SOMETHING!"

"Okay, jeez."

Shots bounced off. Fire wouldn't light. Hitting him didn't do much damage. Finally, she tried TKing him into the wall. She only had to do that a couple of times, and he died.

"Okay, he's gone."

"Maybe if I get enough stuff in here, I can get an upgrade and I'll be able to hold my clairvoyance for longer."

"Whatever."

"That's seriously something I should try. If you want me to, of course."

"I don't care."

"Okay. Thanks. I think I'm not good at clairvoyance because I don't like to see things from other peoples' perspectives. Maybe I should look into that."

"Maybe you should shut up now. Come on. While there isn't a threat, I'll hold your hand and guide you through. We can – Ugh! What are those!"

"What? What are what?"

"Little guys with big heads in suits with "no" symbol stamps and black hats."

"They're censors. You should be able to shoot them down in two shots, unless they're those really freaky ones. These ones have skinny arms, right?"

"Yeah."

"Shoot 'em."

Zig shot them down, made easier by the fact that for every shot she made, it could bounce and hit up to twelve people. Or "censors," or whatever.

"Okay, they're gone."

"Okay. Apparently, you've never been in anyone's mind before, so here's the basic monster-briefing. Censors in blue suits will stamp you. Censors who are so big they've broken their blue suits will clap you no matter whether you're hitting them or not, so you should run away and shoot them from far away. Censors in brown suits are smart, and they'll shoot at you. Little guys with big, orangey-yellow heads will explode if you get near them, and it'll hurt you if you aren't more than about three or four feet away from them. You should either shoot them, or let them come up to you, then run away before they explode. That's pretty much it. You can do just about anything to a censor. You can hit it, shoot it, set it on fire if you're far enough away that it won't hurt you… Baisically, anything. Oh, and the mini censors usually come in swarms, so just jump and palm-bomb.

"Glad to know there's that much stuff that's out to get me."

"No, they're out to get _me._ They're out to get everyone except for you. They're your little minions. I've got mine killing my demons as soon as they form. They've only missed a couple so far."

"Okay… So, could I get mine to go off and kill my demons?"

"No, I'm too close to you. Their first instinct is to kill anything and everything except for their creator. Heck, sometimes they even turn on their creator. But anyways, they'd keep trying to kill me instead of the monster. Whoa!"

"Sorry. Rock. So, how do you like your first five minutes of being blind?"

"Not that fun, surprisingly enough. I think it's amazing, how you can get around with just clairvoyance."

"Thanks. You're cool, too."

"Yeah, but a lot of people are afraid of me."

"And you're sure you don't need your eyes checked? I'm the goth-girl from Hell."

"No, you aren't. You're nice."

Suddenly, they heard Sasha's voice coming from the air around them. "Girls, I'm pulling you out of there. There's been an emergency up at the main lodge. I'm going to lock the doors to keep you safe."

Lili found herself sitting on the ground, just as she had been when she went into Zig's mind.

Zig was standing, but when she came out of her mind, she stumbled away from the Brain Tumbler.

"Sasha, why the heck did you do that! We might have been able to fight another demon!"

"There has been a psychic emergency. Specifically, the Main Lodge is on fire. I have to go now, but don't worry – the GPC is 100 fireproof. I made sure of it, just in case."

"I know how to fight psychic fires, Sasha. Dad taught me when I was little and my sister kept flaring up."

"No. I can't let you, Lili. I could lose my job if your father found out. Plus, Agent Vodello would kill me."

"You always think she's gonna kill you. And my dad would do way worse than that. I can keep secrets from him, though. He doesn't think I can, but I have tons of stuff he could never find. Just go, though, Sasha. Cruller and Milla won't be able to hold it for too long. I'll get all the fire extinguishers from around camp."

"Okay. Thank you, Lili."

He jumped down the tree stump (did anything ever get more obvious than that?) in his lab. Lili disappeared (there was a "pop" sound when air rushed to fill the empty space) and, most likely, reappeared somewhere else. Zig just stayed in Sasha's lab, thinking about how screwed-up her mind was.

To FluffleNeCharka: Yeah, I know Zig's pretty stereotypical, except for the blindness and psychicness. But in this chapter, you see that she's happy sometimes. Specifically, when she isn't thinking about depressing things. Having listened to my two friends argue about how the other person has no problems, I have concluded that depressed people want pity, which is the only reason why they talk about their depression. They kept saying why the other person didn't have any problems, and how they had more problems that the other person knows nothing about them. And then my other friend kept trying to say she understood… Depression is an endless black hole that is impossible not to think about, but that can only be cured by not thinking about it.

For everyone else, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Zig's mind is, most baisically, black with a couple long white stripes on the walls that cross a couple times. But you can only see the stripes (which also define where the floor and walls are) by using clairvoyance on the random objects scattered throughout the area. I assume she has a decent number of demons, too, as seen in Rescue. Really, you should read it. I think you might understand a little more about Zig if you read this first though.


	5. Burnt Up

Chapter 5: Burnt Up

Sorry I got that last chapter up late. The internet was being a buttmunch, and it wouldn't let me load my chapters. Everything's good now, though. Here's the new chapter.

And, as always, the chapter title is kinduv a pun. Phoebe (as you will soon find out) is all "burnt up" over burning the Main Cabin… Yeah, I know it's lame.

After awhile, Lili came back. "Okay. Everything's good now. We saved the Main Cabin. It still needs some repairs, but we have a bunch of powerful psychics here, and usually they're bored for most of the day, so that should give them something to do. Plus it'll help them fine-tune their precision skills."

"Where's Sasha?"

"Up at the cabin, talking to the girl who started it. Not to mention that she's crying and that she's really upset. Sasha's still lecturing her on how she has to control her pyrokinetic powers. I wouldn't be surprised if she got mad at him and set _him_ on fire."

"He'd deserve it. You don't yell at someone when they make a mistake like that. They're already beating themselves up on the inside, and they don't need any help."

"Yeah, I know. Once, when I was little, I got mad at my dad and threw my doll at him, and the plastic part hit his eye, and I felt really bad about it, but he got mad, so then I got mad at him."

"My mom got mad whenever I used my psychic skills. And whenever I talked about cute girls."

"That's just mean. She's screwed up."

"Tell me about it."

"Do you wanna go and help make Phoebe feel better?"

"Who?"

"The little girl who set the Main Cabin on fire."

"Oh. I'm not sure I'd be any good at it, but sure."

"Milla's probably gotten mad at Sasha already, so he shouldn't be there."

"Okay. Let's go."

There were two simultaneous pops, and the two girls were at the Main Cabin.

Phoebe had green skin and dark hair, and she was sobbing. Milla was hugging her. _If everyone had someone to hug them when they're sad,_ Zig thought, _I might not be like I am._

Lili and Zig went to hug Phoebe and say nice things, because really, she wasn't alone. Zig told her about the time when she was mad at her mom (she didn't say why) and she teleported all the way to her school. That was the first time she'd ever used her psychic powers, and she'd been _terrified._

"So you aren't alone." Zig was trying to do that soothing, soft voice she had never been able to do. "Most people have problems with their dominant powers. When you grow up, you can be a psychonaut, and you can be Phoebe the Flaming… uh… Female? I dunno. Or Phoebe the Fiery something. The great thing about summer camp is, everyone understands that you don't have that good of a grip on your powers."

"Except Sasha," Lili added.

"Yeah, but he doesn't seem like he comes out of his lab much."

"No, he doesn't. And don't worry. You won't go into psychoisolation for an accident. Psychoisolation is for people who do bad things on purpose. You'll probably just go back to your mind with Cruller to get more control over your power." Lili was talking in a soft, soothing voice. Zig kept quiet after that. She knew she wasn't that good at being nice to people.

"But… But I don't even know why it happened." It was the first time Phoebe had talked since Zig had gotten there. Lili continued in that same, soothing voice.

"Most times, people don't. But you didn't hurt anyone, and you're just a kid. There are tons of kids who have problems with pyrokinesis. It's perfectly okay. Heck, it's even helpful for kids who need help with their telekinesis."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to build back the Main Cabin. Plus, some of the trees are getting unnaturally thick. We should only need one or two – it wasn't really that big of a fire."

"But I came here to control my pyrokinesis… and now…"

"You've been here for awhile, and you didn't set anything on fire. You have good control, Phoebe. But you're still just a kid. The only reason I can keep my powers under control is that I have to work with them for an hour every day. Most kids don't have to do that. So, maybe just get a little more control, and you'll be fine."

"Okay. Milla?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Could… Could we go to your lab? It always makes me feel better."

"Certainly, darling. Now, come on. You need a place to be happy."

Lili smiled as they left. Zig felt good because she'd made a difference in someone's life. Besides her usual bad influence, of course. She'd done something right. It felt good. Before, everything she'd done that she'd thought had been right had been wrong. Even when she did well in school, her mom had said she'd cheated. When she was nice to people and tried to make friends, they were never good enough in her mom's eyes. Eventually, she just stopped trying to have friends, because what was the point? When she'd wanted a religion centered around peace, it wasn't Christianity, so of course it was wrong. Even when she'd run away, she knew it was the right thing, but it was also the wrong thing. Her life was so confusing. Maybe that was why it was so screwed up.

"You wanna go do… something?"

"Sure." They walked around a little bit, then got tired of doing that and just stood there and hung out. Eventually, they went back to the girls' cabin and went to sleep.

The next day, they went back to Sasha's lab and back into Zig's mind. They got farther that day. Lili was better at following Zig now, so they went faster. Also, there was no monster in the beginning and no interruptions for a couple of hours. Then they were done with figments, baggage, cobwebs, and all that stuff.

"Sasha! We're ready to come back! Could you pull us out?"

"Certainly, girls. Lili, you'll have to use your smelling salts. I can only take Zig out."

"Okay."

Before she was pulled out, Zig saw Lili pull out a little packet and grimace.

A moment later, a conscious Lili was standing next to her.

"Wow. You had a lot of baggage."

"Yeah. Let's not talk about it. My life is screwed, and that's the end of it. Okay? Done."

"Okay."

"Wow. Is my hair really that messy?"

"Yeah. You didn't brush it this morning, did you?"

"Nope."

"Did you bring a brush to camp?"

"Yeah. Let's go. I don't want to look this bad."

Sasha was already doing experiments with his new chemical mixture (Lili had told her that his exclamation in German the day before had translated to 'Success! I've done it!' Needless to say, he was very excited, in a Sasha-type way)

They teleported to their cabin, where Zig sorted through her duffel, trying to find her hairbrush.

"Finally! Here it is. Will you do my hair, Lili? I'm really bad at it."

"Sure. Is your scalp hard or soft?"

"So hard I didn't even feel it when I had this knot that was so bad that, after like a minute, I just cut it out."

"Okay. That's good to know."

This also gave Zig time to look at stuff from different places. It was also the first time she really noticed Lili's hair.

Her hair would probably be about waist-length if it were down. It looked like she'd used hair bands to wrap her hair around Christmas ornaments, (like people do with water bottles on Crazy Hair Day) except that the bottom sphere stopped halfway down and still had a bowl shape. There were two normal spheres on either side of her head and one half-sphere below them.

"Whoa – how many gallons of gel do you have to use to get your hair to stay like that?"

"Actually, it's telekinesis. My older sister was using telekinesis to make her hair stay at this one party, so I figured I could use it for my normal, everyday style. It doesn't really take that much concentration, now that I'm used to it. How do you keep your hair from being frizzy?"

"I don't. It just does that. Why are we talking about hair?"

"Because you brought the subject up."

"Oh, yeah, huh?"

"Yeah. Do you want to go collect stuff from around camp? It's fun!"

"Sure. I have a dowsing rod now."

"Okay. We'll have to divide up the areas though. Do you like gaining rank or getting arrowheads more?"

"Uh… I guess I like arrowheads. I'm a pretty high rank already."

"So am I. I know the Lake area has a lot of arrowheads. And some other stuff, too, like a couple of scavenger hunt items… I've already finished the Scavenger Hunt, so do you want to do it?"

She remembered the little paper Cruller had given her.

"Sure."

"Okay. It levels you up eight levels. It's fun."

"Coolness."

They went around and got all the collectibles from around camp – the Psi Cards, Psi Challenge Markers, and Arrowheads, plus all the Scavenger Hunt items. It was surprisingly easy. Well, except for that one psi card up above camp. She'd been able to psi float down to the ledge most of the time. She wasn't good with walking or moving on ropes. Eventually, she'd just pulled her legs up to the tightrope and went along like a sloth. Then when she was there, she jerked her arms in, pulling her upper body up, and made a wild swing at the card. She got it, and psi floated back down. That was the reason she always wore tights. You never know when you're going to be levitating above people, and a dress like hers didn't really go with levitation.

Lili greeted her at the bottom. All of the kids were cheering for her – most of them couldn't get that psi card.

"Wow. Good job. Cool way of getting across that rope, too."

"Anyone could do it."

"Not necessarily. Like, Dogan, that kid over there? He tried a ton of times, and he's really lucky he has his psi float. You're supposed to get your merit badges renewed each year, which I think is dumb, but I think he actually kind of needs it. He's really powerful, like, he's blown up three people's heads already, but that's the one psi card that hardly anyone can get."

"So I guess you got it on your first try."

"Yeah, but I didn't even try until I knew advanced levitation. That's the stuff you do without a little glowing ball. I might be able to teach you. I have to warn you, though, it's even more addictive than the normal levitation."

"That's possible?"

"Yep. It's also supposed to help with advanced telekinesis, where you can pick up a bunch of items at once. I think that's what Milla does with her earrings. One of the old camp stories is that Sasha made them for her, but that's one of the ones I've chosen not to believe."

"Cool. How long will it take to teach me?"

"A long time. And that actually brings up something else. Where are you going to go after this? You can't stay here forever. Are you going home?"

"No. There's too much between us. I don't know. I'll survive, though. I'll find someplace to stay."

"I was thinking, maybe you could come to Psychonauts Headquarters with me. That's where I live about half of the time."

"And the other half?"

"At my family's summer house near San Francisco, here, and… well, just… places. The life of a Psycadet is crazy, but it's better than being a Psychonaut, because that's actually dangerous."

"Oh. Yeah, huh?"

"Yeah. But it could be fun. The partner I have now at HQ is a total butthead. She's really girly, and it's like, why the heck to I have to put up with her? I mean, that stuff's nice once in a long, long while, but this is, like, every day. It's really nice to have her there when the dances come around, though. She can do anything with my hair."

"Hm. She sounds like a total freak. I mean, I'm weird, but those sorts of people just kind of scare me. I… guess I'll be your room mate. How bad can it be? I mean, we're already in the same cabin."

"Cool. Okay, I have to go do my homework."

"Wha – how the heck would you do that?"

"My teacher has a website, so all the kids who have that go on Sasha's computer and look up what their homework is. Otherwise, their teachers e-mail it to them. I have all my textbooks under my bed."

"Cool. I'm pretty sure my teacher does too. I should be able to catch up on the two days I've been gone. Wait – it's Tuesday, right?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Okay, I'm good. I actually planned that. I ran away on Friday night."

"Smart. You know, sometimes I think my dad's controlling my life a little too much. I'm the most powerful psychic compared to my sisters, so he wants me to be a Psychonaut, which would be fine except that he's putting way to much pressure on it. My mom understands that she has to just let me do my own thing, but my dad is just… After awhile, it gets really annoying, y'know?"

"Yeah. Wait – why are we walking? We could just take the little mine carts."

"Oh, yeah, huh?"

"Yeah. Hey – do you have any extra pencils?"

"Tons. I always lose them, so I bring a ton. Actually, it's just one of those little bags of them. They're pretty. They're sort of pearly white, but then the grip and the clicky part with the eraser are colored."

"Cool. I like mechanical pencils. When the lead breaks, you don't have to spend like a minute trying to sharpen them without breaking the lead a kazillion more times."

They jumped down the tree stump and went to Sasha's lab, did their homework (Zig had two days' worth, but she was only in fifth grade. I guess Lili would be in fourth grade because she should be Raz's age, and this shouldn't be too long before Psychonauts) then went to the camp store, which was in the front of the Main Lodge, and therefore hadn't even been touched by the flames.

Cruller was as crazy as ever, so Lili bargained with him and got a bunch of psi cores for only seven arrowheads apiece. It was really all in how she bargained.

She gave the psi cores to Zig, and they went to Cruller's sanctuary. She gained a bunch of levels, then they went to bed. They had to deal with a pyrokinetic panther, though.

Okay, let's get one thing straight.

This is not filler.

This is more realistic.

Working with the extremely strange characters I have, I'm making a story that goes more like life than a story. Stories have clear plots. Only the chapters in here separate the events. In life, things go from one place to the next without that much separation. If we tried, we could separate the events, but the problem is, we can only do that by looking back. What I'm trying to do here is to get Zig from Point A to Point B. Point A was running away. I've already started foreshadowing Point B.

So, while this isn't one of those stories with a clear plot, and it doesn't have any magnificent events or things that make it the best fanfiction ever, if you think about your life, you'll see that real life just goes on. It doesn't have pauses after all of those great things you've done, it just has stuff that happens, and accidents that happen, and everything is in between good and bad.


	6. Options

Chapter 6: Options

To FluffleNeCharka: yeah, it makes sense that goth and emo are different because, if you've ever studied the Middle Ages, you'll learn a little about Abbot Suger (it's French) and his Gothic architecture. He wanted people to feel the presence of God, not just hear about it. So it makes sense that more Goths are Christian. Because of that, I'm making Zig emo. She's, like, anti-Christian, because of her mom, who doesn't follow the teachings of Christ but calls herself Christian anyway. Does that answer your question about Zig?

. What I hate is that all the Girl Scout graces involve "the Lord" or God. It wouldn't bug me that much, except that people from every religion are in Girl Scouts (or, if they're not in the US, Girl Guides) so it doesn't seem fair.

Let's just assume that, by now, Zig is Buddhist. You don't have to go through some ritual to be Buddhist, you just have to want to be a Buddhist.

So, finally, the story.

What _was_ she going to do? She knew she couldn't stay here forever. Her mom would come here after awhile, and she'd have to go home. She didn't think she could get into the quarters at Psychonauts HQ. So, what could she do?

So far, she'd been trying to get her options into recognizable order.

She couldn't just live on her own in the middle of the woods.

She probably couldn't get into the training facilities at PHQ, and even if she could, she would have to have her mom say that she could. Normally, she would just forge the signature, like she did at school. She didn't believe she could lie to the Psychonauts.

She couldn't stay at Whispering Rock because her mom would come to get her.

She couldn't go to a boarding school because that took a lot of money.

And she definitely couldn't go home.

So then came the question: what the heck _could_ she do? She needed more options.

She sat there, thinking, for about ten minutes, then she gave up and went to get breakfast.

She'd heard stories of people who just lived in their own minds. That sounded really dull, and those stories usually ended with the person either figuring out that the real world was better or going crazy. That wouldn't work out.

So, again, she was left with no options.

Lili came up next to her with her tray of… something. Maybe pancakes, but since the only cooking surface in the whole camp (besides in Sasha's lab, but who would want to cook food on _that?_) the eggs and pancakes and waffles and everything were cooked on a sheet of metal that was placed over the grill after the sausages and bacon were done. Mostly bacon, though.

"Hey, Zig. Don't think like that. You can get into PHQ, easy! You don't have anywhere to go, you're willing to learn, and you have a large enough amount of psychic energy that you want to control completely. They'll understand if you don't have all the right papers. When do you think your mom's gonna come?"

"I dunno. She hasn't yet. It's only… I don't know how many hours it is, but we only live, like, a hundred or so miles away."

"Wow. And you came all the way here?"

"Over the state line and everything."

"Wow. Well, the train comes through a couple miles away from here every so often. You can ask Milla for the train schedule. The time it's supposed to get there is about when you should leave."

"Uh… Okay. Where does it go?"

"Right into D.C., so you don't have to worry about that or anything."

"Okay."

"I'd suggest going after your mom comes, though."

"Why? The whole purpose of coming here was to get away from her."

"Well, people make mistakes. You _did_ leave a note, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but not in paper. I put it in as the desktop on her account on the computer."

"Wow. That's the sort of thing that most kids wouldn't even think of."

"I'd been waiting to run away for a long time."

"Apparently. So, just give it a week, and if your mom isn't here by then, I'll tell her what you've done. And if you don't get into Psycadet training at PHQ, which would actually be really hard for you to do, the train comes right back here. Oh, and when you get there, tell the receptionist I want you to be my roommate."

"Okay, sure. Wait, what's your last name?"

"Zanotto. Liliana Zanotto."

"Liliana?"

"Yeah. Don't tell people, okay? I hate that name. It's so… feminine."

"Yeah, my real name is Amelia Easter Johnson, so I know what it's like."

"Easter?"

"Don't ask."

"Okay, apparently you need to learn some psychic etiquette. When approached by a psychic with any kind of telepathic powers, you don't say, "don't ask," you say, "don't pry." It's different, because "don't ask" implies that they can do anything to get the information besides ask you. It actually gives them more freedom to find the answer."

"Okay. Any other obscure facts that I would never, ever know if you don't tell me?"

"Yeah. Don't expect your blindness to be an excuse of any kind. They know you can use clairvoyance to see, and they know you're used to it."

"Good. I hate it when everyone treats me special just because I'm blind."

"Then that's good. Oh, and don't ever let anyone think your mind isn't guarded. Some of the teenagers there will go into your thoughts just to prove that they can."

"They'd run away in terror."

"Exactly. Wait until I'm there, because I want to watch."

"Okay, sure."

They ate their… well, believe it or not, it was breakfast, and they ate it in silence after that, then went to the girls' cabin to read.

Around two o'clock, after she'd had lunch, Zig's mom came to Whispering Rock and made a huge deal of going to see Zig. Of course, Milla was there to greet her.

"Hello! Why are you here? Are you someone's parent?"

"Yes, my little girl ran away and I was forced to track her all the way to this… this crater, where she said she was!"

"Oh, you mean Zig. She's in the girls' cabin. I think she's reading."

"No, you don't understand. My daughter doesn't read. She's blind."

"Yes, Zig. She's in the girls' cabin, reading Lili's book from Lili's point of view."

"Impossible! And who is this 'Lili' person?"

Milla could tell that this woman was going to be difficult.

"She's Zig's new best friend and the daughter of Truman Zanotto, the Head of the Psychonauts. It wouldn't be that smart to say anything rude right mow. I think Lili's trying to connect with your mind."

"Then tell her to stop! Where is the girls' cabin?"

"Up the hill across the rope bridge, and the cabin they're in is the one way in the back near the outhouse that never gets used."

Mrs. Johnson stormed up the hill, across the bridge, and to that particular cabin. Lili, and consequently, not Zig, looked to see what the cause of the shadow on the book was.

"AMELIA ASTER JOHNSON!"

"Y-yes, momma?"

Zig felt a million times smaller.

"DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN! I HAD TO TRACK YOU ALL THE WAY HERE, AND YOU, UNGRATEFUL CHILD, DIDN'T EVEN LEAVE A NOTE!"

"Y-yes I did, momma, on your computer account. I made it into your desktop."

"And you think I was looking on my COMPUTER! Why you insolent ---"

She picked a rock up off the ground and hurled it at Zig, who shielded. But Lili had different plans. She picked the rock up via telekinesis and hurled it right back into the woman's face, but missed her mark and hit her forehead. Needless to say, Mrs. Johnson was knocked out.

"Zig, don't let her do that to you! You didn't tell me she throws stuff at you! That's illegal!"

"I thought it didn't count because it never hits me anyways."

"No, it counts no matter what."

"But then you threw it at her."

"I was defending you. I kept you safe and at the same time rendered her helpless. Right now, you should probably pack up and head for the train station."

"Yeah. Usually she doesn't get that mad though."

"Right now, let's focus on you. I'll help fold your stuff and close your duffel."

"Thanks."

"No problem. I'll tell her what you're doing when she wakes up. I think the train's going to be in the station soon. Listen. It's going to tire you out, but use your teleportation as much as you can to get there. When you can't do it, you can't do it, and a little bit after that, you'll be tired beyond belief, but all you need to do is just get there."

"Okay."

"Start by teleporting yourself outside the parking lot."

She did, and, through teleportation and the wonders of Clairvoyance, Zig got to the Train Station just before the train was going to go away, and used the levitation skills Lili had taught her to catch up with it after she bought her ticket.

When Mrs. Johnson woke up, Lili told her what had happened. Fearing the Head of the Psychonauts, she didn't threaten Lili, but did yell at her and chase her until she was hit with a telekinetic hand by a black bear. I would like to say that the bear ate her, but the bear was on the South Beach diet, so it didn't want to eat Mrs. Johnson, who was rather pudgy.

Great ending, huh? So, Zig and Lili are going to be roommies, Mrs. Johnson no longer has any control over Zig, who is now officially Buddhist, and the bears at Whispering Rock are even weirder than you thought. That was just because I didn't want to have too much violence in this though.


End file.
